Anyway, now that they’ve been eliminated from The Amazing Race 6, I have no reason to care. In an extended interview with TV Guide, the couple address all of our burning questions (yes, they’re still together; yes, Jonathan is pure evil in human form), and Jonathan remembers to repeat most of the excuses, although he has forgotten about the stress and medication one. Maybe most significantly, Jonathan says that “[t]he shove in Berlin was wrong. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I can’t apologize any more because I really felt that it hurt.” He doesn’t really apologize any more, but does blame the editing (“If we gave them 200 percent, why did they have to use 200 percent? They could have used 180 percent.”) and his persona (“We went into this knowing we were going to be the villains, so I almost gave myself permission to be bad.”), and also compares himself to Colin and Christie.

For her part, Victoria also blames the editing (“I shrugged it off a lot, and I also gave it back to him a lot. They didn’t always show me telling him ‘Get away from me’ or ‘Back off’ or just defending myself.”) Of the shove, she says “that moment in Berlin was a heavy moment for us, and probably one of the most dramatic moments in our relationship. We don’t fight like that; we’re not physical with each other. So having the worst moment of your relationship aired on national television was pretty tough.”

In the Providence Journal, J-dog comes up with a new way of framing his excuses, and this one is incredible: “It was CBS who pointed the gun at Victoria” and “took no responsibility for what it showed.” The paper reports that “the couple alleged it [CBS] also actively worked to bring about such incidents. The show subjects contestants to unrelenting stress.” Victoria says, “We knew we were going to give the other teams a hard time and shake things up. We didn’t know they were going to put such a negative spin on our relationship.” And Victoria also blames the network, noting that because a camera was visible in the shoving shot, “It shows this decision had to go way up the line.”

about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart is a journalist who has covered reality television for more than 15 years and created reality blurred in 2000. A member of the Television Critics Association, his writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Playboy, Buzzfeed, and many other publications. Andy, 37, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. More about reality blurred and Andy.

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reality blurred exists to cover television's most under-appreciated genre, reality TV, with original reporting, analysis, criticism, and curated information. It's edited by Andy Dehnart.
reality blurred is regularly updated with reality TV news; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of reality TV shows including Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, The Voice, Top Chef, and many more.
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